Courage
by It Must Be The Nargles
Summary: Neville Longbottom is in his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he's in love...but who is it? Fic is much better than summary so please check it out :


**Courage ****by: **** It Must Be The Nargles**

It was his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Neville Longbottom was lying in his bed listening to the snoring coming from his room-mate Ron Weasley. He wasn't awake because of Ron, but because he fancied a girl. He had known her for a couple of years but had never had the guts to tell her how he felt. He couldn't get her out of his mind, her eyes, her hair, her smile and even the way she just walks around like she doesn't give a care for the world. Everything about this girl just drove him crazy!

_I really should get some sleep, there's no point dwelling on it now. _

Realizing just how tired he was, Neville closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly. The next morning, he woke up to find that everyone was already down at breakfast so he got changed and left the room. When he reached the common room he saw Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny and headed over to them.

"Hey, why aren't you guys down at the Great Hall?" he asked them.

"We were waiting for you so we can go down together", Harry answered before he asked "Are you alright Neville?"

"Why'd you ask?

"Oh, only because you were having trouble sleeping last night so I thought there was something on your mind?"

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks for asking, just got a couple of things on my mind"

Neville looked over at the others and saw that Hermione and Ginny were grinning wildly at him.

_Umm why are they grinning at me?_

"What?" he asked them.

"Oh nothing" Hermione replied still grinning.

The two giggling girls left the common room with the guys following looking confused. When they reached the Great Hall, they sat down at the Gryffindor table and Neville's heart just started to race; he caught sight of the girl of his dreams eating some pudding alone, looking dreamily out the window.

_Should I go over and say hi?_

He got up, took a few steps, chickened out and turned around to walk back to his seat. Somehow during this process he had tripped over his own feet! His face crimson in colour was hoping no one saw it but as if it was fate, none other than Draco Malfoy had just entered the Hall with his cronies.

"Oi, Longbottom, don't fall for me, I don't do your breed"

After this little torment, Malfoy sat down at the Slytherin table and soon the whole Slytherin table was pointing and laughing at him and soon even some people in the other houses were standing up to get a good look at him. Neville, who felt he couldn't bear the thought that the girl was going to look over at him and laugh if she hasn't done so already, he got up and left the Hall and went outside.

When he was feeling upset or stressed about exams, he would come outside to sit under the tree that looks out onto the lake, it made him feel calm and it was one of the only places where he could come to think in peace without interruptions. It was a beautiful day outside; It was a cloudless day and the sun was high up in the sky. He wished that he could share this day with that special someone.

_She'll never like me, especially after that embarrassing incident! I'm such an idiot; there is no way that she'll ever like me back. Maybe I should give up? There's no point in thinking that one day she'll like me! I mean, why would she? There are plenty of guys that are better looking than me and there are plenty of guys that are smarter than me… but there are no guys that love her more than me. Wait, did I just say love? Neville, you are such a loser…_

Neville's thoughts were interrupted by someone who was approaching him. It was Hermione Granger.

"Neville, are you ok?" She had a look of genuine concern on her face.

"No, not really"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

_Maybe I should tell someone? There's no point bottling it up. _He told himself.

"Ummm, Hermione, is there someone that you're absolutely crazy about and you can't get them out of your head, but you're not sure if you should tell them how you feel because you're afraid they won't feel the same way?"

Hermione's face went bright red as she thought about Ron.

"You know what Neville, there is"

"Well then you know exactly how I feel"

"She likes you too, you know?"

"Wait… what… who?"

"You know who I'm talking about?"

Neville didn't even bother denying it. He thought someone should know. He nodded his reply.

"Everyone knows that you two like each other, it's really obvious"

"What? She likes me?"

"Didn't you hear me before? I said she did."

"Wait, so is that why you and Ginny were smiling at me like that this morning?"

Hermione giggled, "Yes Neville."

They sat there in silence for a while.

"So what do I do?"

"Why don't you just tell her how you feel, you know that she likes you back"

"Yeah, but Hermione, I have no idea how?"

"Oh Neville! Are all guys like this? Just go up to her and tell her exactly how you feel, I'm sure you'll be fine"

"Ok then, when should I tell her?"

"How 'bout after dinner tonight?"

"Tonight?"

"Yeah, tonight"

Neville was about to protest when Hermione had got to her feet and said something about being late for class. He couldn't concentrate in any of his classes. In Potion's class, he was worse than ever! He had put the wrong ingredients in his potion and made an explosion that was so big, it gave Seamus Finnigan a run for his money and it put Snape in a worse mood (if that was possible.) In transfiguration, he had to turn animals into various objects but ended up almost setting Trevor alight while trying to turn him into a pocket watch and in history of magic, he fell into a deep daydream thinking about how he was going to tell the girl that he liked her, even love her. He was in such a daydream that he didn't even hear Professor Binns asking him to answer a question.

Neville was sitting in the common room a couple hours later. It was almost time for dinner and he knew what he had to do after, he wasn't feeling that hungry now that he thought about it. Ron had come down the staircase and saw Neville sitting in one of the chairs in front of the fire and saw him looking like he had ate a vomit flavored Bettie Bott's Beans. He decided that he'll go over and keep Neville company while he waited for Harry and Hermione.

"Hey Neville, what's wrong?"

"Oh nothing"

"Don't lie to me, I can tell something's wrong"

"Ok, ummm… I was gonna tell a girl that I liked her tonight after dinner and I feel like I had swallowed Trevor or something"

"Neville, you'll do fine. Everyone knows that you two like each other and you're one of the bravest Gryffindor's I have ever met, go and get her mate"

Just as Ron has said this, a loud cruel voice was echoing throughout the whole castle frightening everyone half to death. It was Voldemort's voice saying something about giving him Harry Potter before midnight or hell was gonna strike.

_Stupid Voldemort! He always ruins everything!_

There was scatter of children everywhere as they tried to hide from the voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. Hermione ran down the stairs and ran into Ron's arms as Harry followed looking around at the combustion. Professor McGonagall had come into the common room trying to calm down the students. When she had finally done so, she had said that they should all gather in the great hall so they can get all the younger students to safety while the older students were allowed to fight if they wanted.

Following Harry, Ron and Hermione to the great hall, Neville kept his eyes open to see if he could see even a small hint if the girl was alright and that bastard Voldemort hadn't hurt her. Ginny who was just in front of Neville turned around and saw that he was looking around franticly. Grabbing ahold of his hand, Ginny reassured him that she was probably down at the hall already and pulled him towards the direction of the hall.

When they all got there it was five minutes to midnight and all the students who weren't fighting were leaving through the secret tunnel from the room of requirement to hog's head on the other side. The remaining students were nervously awaiting Voldemort and his army to come crashing into the hall. Harry, Ron and Hermione had gone off to do something 'urgent' and Neville was sitting with Ginny trying to keep her calm as she was worrying about Harry. As the clock stroke midnight, Voldemort's booming voice had once again rang through the castle basically to announce that he was gonna kill them now. How original.

Then all of a sudden, hell struck out and Voldemort and his army came thundering into the hall. Luckily Neville was ready for the attack and skillfully stunned two Death Eaters after one another. He looked frantically around to see if anyone was hurt and saw Ginny fighting a death eater, Fred and George dueling Dolohov and Fenrir Greyback and certain members of the Order dueling two Death Eaters at once.

An hour had passed and Neville, who had dueled so many Death Eaters in that amount of time had lost count. Everywhere he looked, there were Death Eaters lying motionless on the floor and he hoped that no-one he knew was to join them. The fight was still going and the castle was looking like hell and students were injured everywhere. Neville turned around and saw on the other side of the castle Dolohov who was lying unconsciously, stirred. Then he had got to his feet, wand raised ready to attack. Neville began to sprint over to the other side of the castle ready to send Dolohov into the depths of hell when he saw him raise his wand and was going to attack the closest person near him which was a short blond. Neville's heart was pounding so fast that he wasn't sure if he was going to make it in time but he managed to reach him and stunned him. The Death Eater fell back onto the floor for the second time that night.

He didn't know what came over him but Neville then walked over to the blond and closed the distance between them. With one hand in her hair and the other one on her waist, he pulled her towards him and kissed her full on the mouth. She looked up at him with a mixture of surprise but mainly happiness. "What was that for?"

Neville smiled down at her and said, "I've been trying to get the courage to do that for years now. I love you Luna" and kissed her all over again.


End file.
